John Bellers

John Bellers (1654-1725) was an English educational theorist and Quaker, author of "Proposals for Raising a College of Industry of All Useful Trades and Husbandry" (1695).

Life

Born in London, John Bellers was the son of the Quaker Francis Bellers and Mary Read. Unable to attend University or join a profession as a result of his religion, John was undoubtedly educated as an apprentice cloth merchant. [George Clarke, "John Bellers: his life, times, and writings", p. 3] He rapidly became active in Meetings and in the Quaker community as a whole, purchasing convert|10000|acre|km2 of land in Pennsylvania in 1685 for "Hugenot" refugees for example. William Penn was a close friend. He married a fellow Quaker, Frances Fettiplace, in 1686, and they had six children between 1687 and 1695, although one died shortly after birth. [George Clarke, "John Bellers: his life, times, and writings", p. 5-6] From 1695 to his death in 1725, he was continually involved in writing innovative tracts on social issues, including education, health provision, care for the poor, support for refugees, a plan for a European State, and an argument for the abolition of capital punishment, making him "the first European advocate of the abolition of capital punishment."http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2050?_fromAuth=1] He became a member of the Royal Society in 1718.

"Proposals for Raising a College of Industry of All Useful Trades and Husbandry" (1695)

Bellers' essay is a proposal for a "College of Industry", a sort of colony for the poor - those who depend on their work or on charity for their living. Bellers argued that it was in the interest of the rich "to take care of the poor and their education".

Bellers dedicated the first edition to his fellow Quakers, although the College was to be a "Civil Fellowship rather than a religious one." The first edition of the pamphlet ends with an appeal for funding - "An Epistle to Friends Concerning the education of Children" - in favour of the College, signed by about forty-five Quakers, including William Penn, Robert Barclay, Th. Ellwood, and John Hodgskin. The second edition (1696) was dedicated to Parliament. The Quaker Workhouse at Clerkenwell was established in 1702 as a result of his efforts. [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=39816. Untitled Page ] ]

The combination of agriculture and manufacture would enable self-sufficiency and even profit. Bellers argued that if all "the present idle hands of the poor of this nation" were put to work, it would bring England "as much treasure as the mines do Spain".

The plans for the education of children at the College were ahead of their time. Practice and experience were to be valued over rote-learning. Bellers advocated the combination of learning and work as a way of preventing idleness. Karl Marx mentions Bellers in a footnote in Chapter 23 of Das Kapital, favourably quoting his assertion that "Labour [is] as proper for the body’s health as eating is for its living" and that "Labour adds Oyl to the Lamp of Life when thinking Inflames it."

Robert Owen read the proposals in 1817, and in a letter to "The Times" acknowledged their resemblance to the community he himself had created at New Lanark. He had 1,000 copies reprinted that year. Eduard Bernstein saw Bellers as a precursor of socialism, if not communism, highlighting his argument for valuing goods according to labour, not money.

"About the Improvement of Physick" (1714)

Bellers advocated a national system of hospitals, which were to treat the poor and act as training schools for new doctors. Eduard Bernstein saw in this essay an anticipation of a national health service.

Works

1696 "Proposals for Raising a College of Industry of All Useful Trades and Husbandry"
1699 "Essays about the poor, Manufactures, Trade, Plantations and Immorality, and of the Excellency and Divinity of Inward Light"
1710 "Some Reasons for an European State proposed to the Powers of Europe..."
1712 "An Essay towards the Ease of Elections of Members of Parliament"
1714 "About the Improvement of Physick"
1723 "An Essay for Employing the Poor to Profit"
1724 "An Epistle to Friends of the Yearly, Quarterly, and Monthly Meetings"
1724 "An abstract of George Fox’s Advice and Warning To the Magistrates of London in the year 1657..."

Notes

External links

* [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bernstein/works/1895/cromwell/17-bellers.htm John Bellers, Champion of the Poor] Chapter 17 from Eduard Bernstein's "Cromwell and Communism"
* [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2050?_fromAuth=1 John Bellers] Tim Hitchcock's article "John Bellers" in the Oxford Dictionnary of National Biography.
* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=39816 Richard Hutton's complaints book] 'Introduction', Richard Hutton's complaints book: The notebook of the Steward of the Quaker workhouse at Clerkenwell, 1711-1737 (1987), pp. VII-XXIII.

References

* (ed.) George Clarke, "John Bellers: his life, times, and writings" (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1987)
* Anna Ruth Fry, "John Bellers. 1654-1675 (A Memoir)" (Cassell, 1935)
* Philip S. Belasco, "John Bellers", in Economica No. 14 (1925): pp. 165-174